Syrupy ‘Selena’ A Little Reality Would Have Made A Far Better Story Than Sanitized Version Of Tejano Superstar’s Life
I’m not a Hispanic teenager searching for pop-culture role models among a sea of white and black faces. So I can’t know what impact the murder of Selena Quintanilla Perez had on her audience.
When I see “Selena,” a movie as sanitized as an intensive care unit, I’m not seeing through the eyes of a devotee studying a saint. I see a long picture with more syrup than a pancake house, so worshipful that Mother Teresa should be this lucky with her film biography.
This is not the first uplifting biopic about a Mexican-American pop singer who died young. “La Bamba” (1987) paid tribute to Richie Valens, who adapted the traditional folk tune of the title and wrote the ‘50s classic “Donna.”
“La Bamba” had grit: We saw Valens making mistakes, being a bit hot-headed. Selena doesn’t make a false move from the age of 9 until her killing by the president of her fan club.
The worst thing she does in the whole movie is let a pet chicken sleep in her parents’ bathtub. (Second worst: She steals Doritos from her sister’s food cabinet, which is way off limits.) Even when she runs off with her “bad” lead guitarist, they marry instantly and return to the open arms of her forgiving family.
Writer-director Gregory Nava obviously wanted to give the Hispanic community a heroine to look up to. To satisfy her fans, who literally prayed to her to heal them after she died, he had to make her perfect. And perfect people pall.
His script doesn’t leave one music cliche unsounded. He starts promisingly, briefly sketching the short life of a ‘60s doo-wop group founded by Selena’s dad, Abraham Quintanilla. Then we jump to 1981, when Abraham learns 9-year-old Selena can sing. Soon, he’s urging her into a baby band with her sister on drums and brother on bass.
Now comes Selena’s dreaming-on-the-moon scene. (“When I’m up on stage, I can be anything I want to be.”) Then, after a disappointing first gig at a country fair, Abraham’s inspirational speech: “If we try hard, and if we really want it, we can do it. Do you believe me?”)
Selena falls for guitarist Chris Perez. She triumphs before a huge crowd in Mexico.
Despite her father’s interference, she vows never to let Chris go: “He cares about me. The real me, inside. And you’re not going to take that away from us!” And at last, Abraham realizes her incredible gifts: “All those barriers people ran into in the past, you went through them as if they didn’t exist. Maybe for you, they don’t exist.”
Reality sneaks into the movie once in a while. Abraham, played by an appealing Edward James Olmos, gets off a funny speech about the burdens of being too American for Mexico and too Mexican for the United States. Padding around in his underwear, 30 pounds overweight and stumbling over furniture, he can be clownish without losing our respect.
Since Quintanilla was the film’s executive producer, you have to admire him for letting us see his controlling side. But he must have insisted the movie be a shrine to his daughter, which is why she remains a blank screen on which her fans can project their own dreams.
Jennifer Lopez’s Selena has a sexy wholesomeness, twirling around in her virginally white bustier. She has modest chemistry with Jon Seda, who doesn’t dare to make Chris more than modestly naughty - say, John Travolta as Vinnie Barbarino in “Welcome Back, Kotter.”
The soundtrack shows how little Selena had in common with traditional Mexican music: Her pleasant voice comes across as a blend of her beloved Donna Summer and any first-rate session singer fluent in Spanish.
Lopez looks convincing while performing Selena’s moves in concert excerpts, which Nava shoots like unimaginative music videos.
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: “Selena” Location: East Sprague, Coeur d’Alene, North Division Credits: Directed and written by Gregory Neva. Starring Jennifer Lopez, Jon Seda and Edward James Olmos. Running time: 2:10 Rating: PG